Atheneum eyes budget cuts, reduced hours, staff

Friday

Feb 20, 2009 at 2:00 AM

By Jason Graziadei I&M Senior Writer

One of the jewels of downtown Nantucket, The Atheneum, is attempting to weather the current economic storm and a significant loss of revenue from the town, but some unwelcome changes could be on the way.

The same economic pressures that are threatening island businesses and pushing the town to consider layoffs and the elimination of services are also affecting the historic public library which is now considering a reduction in operating hours and other cutbacks.

The downtown landmark receives nearly 40 percent of its budget through an annual contribution from the town, which could be reduced by 10 percent this year, the same cut imposed on all town departments. While The Atheneum is operated as a non-profit entity and is not a town department, it did receive $641,000 from Nantucket taxpayers last year, and a 10 percent reduction in that funding, coupled with projected shortfalls in its annual fundraising campaign, will have an impact on the library's service levels.

"We've already started to pull back on things, and where we could make some decisions to postpone things, we did," said Molly Anderson, The Atheneum's director. "We're going to have to reduce a number of programs we offer, there's no doubt about that."

The library will likely scale back its operating hours a small amount, Anderson said, and has already reduced its cleaning contract, sacrificed one of its storage units and is attempting to find efficiencies with its heating and air condition costs. The five or six par-time employees the library brings in during the summer will not be hired this year.

On average, The Atheneum is open 43.5 hours per week, and is hoping to reduce that number without going under 40 hours, which could jeopardize its certification with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the $8,000 in state funding that comes with it.

"Reducing it to 40 hours doesn't sound huge, but it will save us money," Anderson said. "We're not open on Mondays in the summertime, and we'll have to reduce the hours on the other days of the week, maybe by 30 m minutes everyday. It doesn't sound like a lot but it reduces services to the public."

Founded in 1834 and burned to the ground in the Great Fire of 1846, the Atheneum was rebuilt one year later in 1847 and became a free public library in 1900. With over 56,000 books, periodicals and videos, the library's card-holding membership has grown to 21,272 individuals, including 7,748 island residents.

"The Atheneum is, in many ways, the lifeline of culture and education, particularly for downtown, and the island," Anderson said. "People really depend on us to keep the doors open and keep our circulation collection up to date and current. When economic times are hard, the use of a public library tends to become a more critical nexus. People seek community space to come together and be with others. I don't want to compromise the quality of it, and we're looking at strategic ways to serve that role in the community."

The library has already announced that it will not be brining back its popular Circus Flora event this summer, as the cost and logistics of the event proved to be too much in the current economic climate.

"Part of the decision was definitely economic because the cost of bringing the circus is so high, it just wasn’t going to work this year," Anderson said. "It was an enormous undertaking. It took away from some of the other things we need to do as well.”

The low-overhead Thanksgiving Turkey Plunge, another Atheneum fundraiser, will go on as scheduled, and the library hopes to expand its Stiefel and Stars event, which last year featured dancers from the American Ballet Theater, the New York City Ballet, and the Royal Theater in a performance at Nantucket High School.

“We realized there was interest in dance of that caliber, so we decided to bring back another group and call it the Nantucket Atheneum Dance Festival and have two performances,” Anderson said. The event will also include a lecture demonstration and several classes free to students interested in dance.

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